The Lost
by NovemberMurray
Summary: After saving Satine from Maul at a cost, Obi-Wan tries to help his disheartened Duchess out of her stupor the only way he knows how, bad caf and a greasy breakfast. Obi-Wan/Satine (clearly)AU


Author's Note: This is a continuation of the continuity from my story The Lawful. I'm trying to set up a believable scenario where Anakin can be saved and I think Obi-Wan is the key. So first I get to indulge myself and save Satine. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my little Obitine story. I really love this couple, they're nontraditional but still sweet. –Ember

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

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The Lost by November Murray

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"I'm sorry Obi-Wan," Senator Padme Amidala said as she opened the door, "I didn't know what to do."

Obi-Wan Kenobi smiled sadly as he entered the Senator's spacious apartment. "It's quite alright, my lady. You were very kind to offer your home to the Duchess." With the growing unrest on Mandalore and Prime Minister Almec's farce of a government trying to pass as legitimate it didn't seem safe to take Satine to the Mandalorian Senator after his predecessor's betrayal. Anakin had called Padme and the Nabooo Senator had been more than happy to accommodate the deposed Duchess. Amidala now showed Obi-Wan to the door of the guest room which was pulled tightly shut.

"She hasn't come out. I've tried talking to her but she hardly responds. She refused to eat or drink anything yesterday. After her nephew left, she just seemed to stop trying. She's locked the door and disabled the security systems inside." Padme explained with honest worry in her voice, wringing her hands anxiously. Obi-Wan frowned. He'd hoped that having Korkie, Satine's young nephew, around would help but for his own safety he and his friends were sent back to the boy's father on Kalevala.

"I'll see what I can do for her." Obi-Wan tried to sound more sure than he felt. Padme gave him only a weak smile so he assumed he'd failed. She drifted away toward her sitting room to give him some privacy with his old friend. Though friend felt like an inadequate word after disobeying orders to run halfway across the galaxy on a potentially suicidal mission to save her. Yes friend was an inappropriate term but to call her anything else would only force him to accept his feelings. If he accepted them he would act on them. Obi-Wan sighed and knocked firmly on the door.

"Satine," he called inside. He reached out with the Force, feeling the emotions of the woman inside the room. Despair, bitter and heavy lay within.

"Obi? Is that you?" Her voice was soft and muffled by the door. "What are you doing here?" He thought he caught a sniffle.

"Padme was worried about you, she called me to help. Will you let me in?" Silence fell and he could feel her deliberating.

"Alright," She finally said and the lock clicked over. Satine opened the door wide enough for him to enter, clinging behind it in the shadows. Unlike the airy, open balconies of the rest of the apartment, Satine's room was closed and dark. The blinds were pulled firmly shut and the only light was a dim lamp on the desk, seemingly forgotten. Satine closed the door slowly, for the first time coming totally into view. Her blond hair was in disarray and hung raggedly around her face. Her night gown, loaned from Padme was rumpled and creased. There were dark half moons under the Duchess's once bright eyes that were now dim and red rimmed, flirting about as if not looking at Obi-Wan would stop him from existing.

"Don't look at me like that," The duchess said, making a half-hearted attempt to wipe her eyes.

"I'm not looking at you like anything."

"Yes you are." She wandered back to her bed and sat heavily.

"I was only thinking you look tired, Satine."

"Forgive me but after everything I think I've earned the right to be tired," she spat back.

"That's not what I meant. We all understand you must be feeling worn out but you need to get your strength back you can't do that locked up here and not—"

"My strength? What strength Obi-Wan? The same strength that let my people fall to the hands of Death Watch and the Sith."

"No, Satine." Obi-Wan sat beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You always said that your people wanted peace, you would never have achieved it if they didn't. They will see that Almec and Death Watch won't bring it to them and they will need you to lead them back."

"Me? You think after a Civil War tears my world apart the people will still want me on the throne? Don't talk to me about politics you know nothing about!" Satine pulled away from his hand and stood in a huff. "You're a Jedi, you never stay in one place long enough to understand _people._ You only swoop in when the problems get out of hand and stab anyone you think is causing trouble as if that would solve everything. Then you run off in your space ship like you've saved the day. Well there are people who get left behind, who have to deal with the mess that you leave! Kill the voice and the ideals still live. But you wouldn't have the courage to fight _that_ battle. No!" Satine spun around and yelled at him. "You just wait until people are _dying!_ What kind of peacekeeper are you if you wait for violence before you act? None at all."

"Satine," Obi-Wan stood slowly, "please. I only wanted to help." He reached out for her.

"Don't touch me. You're just another army dog!" She hissed at him and turned away, eyes bright with unshed tears and anger. Obi-Wan felt his chest constricting as he searched this stranger for the woman he used to know. "Get out," She spat. "Get out and don't you dare come back."

"Satine?" His hands fell uselessly.

"Usenye!" She yelled and her hand swept the air in an angry gesture.

"No. Satine, you're letting your anger control you. You just need to calm—"

Satine grabbed the first item that came to her hands, a large heavy vase on the dresser and threw it will all the force her thin arms could muster. Obi-Wan ducked just in time to avoid having it smash into his face.

"Out!" Satine cried as she threw again, this time a box. Obi-Wan hesitated for a moment then scrambled for the doors. He tripped over the third projectile after it narrowly missed his knee, a stand of some kind. He rolled over in time to see the blond duchess stalk after him and slam the doors firmly shut once more.

"Oh dear," Obi-Wan said to himself still lying on Padme's floor. "That didn't go well at all."

"Obi-Wan," Padme hurried to his side, "are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Obi-Wan got to his feet, brushing off his Jedi robes. "Of all the projectiles that have come my way in the last few years those are the least deadly."

"I can hardly believe she did that. Satine was always so gentle."

"I think we just need to let her… cool down for a while."

Together Jedi and Senator went into the sitting room.

"To be honest," Obi-Wan confessed, "I have no idea what to do or how to help Satine." He glanced over his shoulder at the closed door.

"Did something happen on Mandalore, something that would effect her personally?" Padme passed him a drink and he accepted gratefully, meeting her eyes over the cup. They were warm and brown, soft but full of piercing insight. He understood what his former padawan saw in the young Senator.

"Yes," Obi-Wan admitted, "Satine's sister, a member of the breakaway faction of Death Watch, helped us to escape and died in the effort." Obi-Wan sipped his drink, thinking back to the red headed warrior. Despite the lack of resemblance between the siblings they shared the same determination in their eyes, the same strength and fighting spirit that kept Satine to her nonviolent morals and gave Bo-Katan the strength to make her final sacrifice. Two such strong personalities would inevitably have clashed, he thought.

"I don't think their relationship was… at it's best when she died," Obi-Wan ventured.

"Then Satine is grieving for more than her people, she's grieving for her family."

"Yes. She had precious little before. Now… her brother and nephew are all she has left." Silence fell for a moment as both the Senator and Jedi were lost in thought, looking out over the city.

"How do you deal with grief, Obi-Wan?"

"Grief? Jedi do not grieve as others do. We believe that when a person dies their consciousness returns to the Cosmic Force and they live on there."

"Even so, you must miss them."

"Death is a natural part of life and we do not dwell on it."

"So Jedi teaching says but how do _you _cope with loss?" Padme asked in her soft musical voice, somehow managing to be neither demanding nor accusing. "You were close with your teacher, Master Qui-Gon, weren't you?"

Obi-Wan swallowed. "All padawan's are close to their masters."

"What did you do when you returned from Naboo?" She asked, warm eyes steady and unyielding as they met his, challenging him to think. Her questions seemed to fall over him like water and with them came a slow realization of what he had to do, what Satine needed.

"Thank you, Senator, for the drink." He put his cup down and stood up. Outside Satine's door he planted his feet and took a deep breath. He hoped she'd run out of things to throw at him.

Obi-Wan reached out with the Force to the door and the lock inside, feeling the metal and how the living Force wrapped around it. With a wave of his hand the lock clicked and the door swung open. Obi-Wan marched inside, head high and face set. He motioned to each window in turn and the blinds flipped up, spilling light across the room and the bed where the fallen Duchess lay.

Satine groaned and turned away quickly, pulling the disheveled covers over her head.

"Get up, Satine." Obi-Wan commanded. "Now. We're going out."

"No."

"You need to eat and to be frank, I'm hungry. _We _are going out."

"Master Obi-Wan," Padme said, coming to the door behind him, slightly flustered by the abrupt change in his tactics, "I can have food brought to us here."

"That won't be necessary, my lady." Obi-Wan told her kindly. "Satine," his voice firm now, "get up and dressed. I really don't like to be kept waiting."

"_Gar lise hetti lo haran ni nu'baatir, shabuir!"_ Obi-Wan didn't know exactly what she said but he got the gist from her tone.

"Now, Satine, it's rude to speak in a language your guests don't understand, you know that. Now either insult me with words I know or pick yourself up and get dressed."

"I can't, Obi," Satine whined.

"Yes. You can." He turned to Padme standing by the door still. "Do you have something the lady can borrow?" He asked her.

Padme shook her head, "She's too tall for any of my clothing but I sent 3PO for some things yesterday." She picked up a small pile of clothing from the desk chair all meticulously folded and in current Coruscant style. Obi-Wan's eyes scanned the stack. He chose something in a deep blue soft fabric and thanked Padme.

"Come on, Satine," Obi-Wan crossed to the bed and scooped up the thin blonde figure. He set her, sitting up, on the bed and put the dress in her lap. Bending down to look into her eyes he said firmly, "dress."

Sheepishly Satine lifted her pale blue eyes to his before nodding weakly. Obi-Wan didn't try to contain the smile on his face and he saw Satine sit a little straighter in response to it.

"Let's give her some privacy," Obi-Wan said to Padme as he left with the Senator in tow. He shut the doors slowly, eyes on the still figure sitting with her back to him, the blue dress folded in her lap. Just before the doors closed he saw her lift her head and glance, for a moment at him. Then the doors closed.

Obi-Wan returned to the sitting room with Padme.

"Do you really think this will work?" She asked him in a harsh whisper.

"I hope so. If it doesn't I'm all out of ideas." Obi-Wan stroked his beard. "I think it will though." He flashed Padme a small smile. It seemed to work better than his earlier attempts to fool her because she just shook her head in exasperation. A moment later he was proved right when Satine's doors opened and she emerged in the flowing blue dress, her hair still hanging loose around her head. She looked almost like herself again.

"Ready, my dear?" Obi-Wan asked.

"I don't even know where you're taking me?" She replied, voice flat.

"I think you'll like it. It's not your usual kind of place but it has it's own brand of class."

"You aren't making any sense, Obi-Wan," Satine replied. Obi-Wan just smiled with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes and took her hand. He threw a wink over his shoulder at Padme as he left with Satine.

.

Dex's Diner was alive. There were as many languages spoken in the Coco town diner as in any seedy smuggler bar Obi-Wan had ever been too and the company was just as diverse. There was an ever-moving stream of people, only half of them interested in food. Business of all kinds was underway and, as it was lunchtime, the food and caf was flowing freely. Despite the confusion Dexter Jettster had time to notice his old friend coming in.

"Obi-Wan!" The large basilisk yelled out from the back. "I'll be right with you."

"We're just here for food today, Dex." Obi-Wan called back.

"We? Is that Anakin with you—No. That's a lady if I've ever seen one. Sit down, sit down. I'll be right there. You've got a story to tell Obi-Wan."

"Another time, Dex." Obi-Wan led Satine through the tight aisle between the crowded bar and the packed booths to the only empty one. Satine slid in unsurely, frowning at the flat worn padding of the seat. She checked the hand that had touched the seat worriedly before wiping it on a napkin with a grimace. Obi-Wan slid in beside her, leaving Dex his own side.

"Why have you brought me here, Obi-Wan?" Satine asked, finally sounding like her usual haughty self.

"I quite like this place." He replied smoothly, smiling. She glared at him sidelong. She was aware he was taking pleasure in her discomfort.

"I should have stayed in bed."

"We haven't even been served yet," Obi-Wan protested. She responded with an eyeroll. There was no time for anything else because Dex had arrived.

The lumbering four armed basilisk chuckled deeply as he came up, arms out for the customary hug. Obi-Wan obligued. They slid back into their seats.

"It's good to see you, my friend," Dex said, moustache bristling and his breath, smelling of rancid pickles and bitter caf spreading around him. "The war keeping you busy?"

"Like you wouldn't believe."

Dex just chuckled and shook his head, his wattle rippling in the movement. "Nasty business that. Don't like the sound of it, not from either side."

"You have contact with the Seperatists?" Satine asked, aghast.

"Now don't go miss understanding, your ladyship. I know people who, know people and so on, I don't claim to know any Seperatists myself unless your askin' about someone particular." Dex grinned his most sinister and twisted grin. Satine just frowned in contempt and poorly concealed disgust.

"Dex, may I introduce, Satine Kryze of Kalevala."

"The same Satine Kryze from Mandalore? Heard about some nasty dealings there."

"Yes, so have we," Obi-Wan said quickly.

"You'll have to tell me what you know," Dex said with unbridled curiosity in his bright eyes. They flicked to Satine when she moved, turning toward the window, lip between her teeth.

"Perhaps another time, my old friend," Obi-Wan said amiably. Dex locked away his curiosity and nodded.

"Lunch then, or Breakfast?"

"Breakfast, anything you think we might enjoy."

"Of course, comin' right up. Take your time. I'll make sure FLO doesn't try to rush you out." Dexter stood leaving the two alone at the table. Obi-Wan slid around to take the vacated seat and sit opposite Satine. Seeing her there in the old retro booth between the grimy windows looking out onto mid afternoon Coco town traffic and the questionable crowd inside was jarring. She didn't belong. It was about as far from the sparkling clean high levels of Manalore's dome city as anywhere could be.

"Explain to me again why we're here." Satine moaned, but her heart wasn't in it. She didn't look as if she cared where she was.

"Because this is where I always seem to end up when bad things happen, when I need to get away from the temple for a while."

"So after all that time you spent describing your illustrious temple when we were children even you need an escape sometimes."

Obi-Wan smiled. Satine never missed an opportunity to throw his words back in his face. It was good to see her grief hadn't changed that yet. "Yes," he admitted, "even I need a break from the temple, now more than ever. This is perhaps the last place the war hasn't touched. It was like this before and if I had to guess it won't change much afterward, even if we loose."

"Don't say that." Satine whispered harshly. Her lip trembled and she folded her hands quickly on the table to hide their shaking. In as softer voice she asked, "Is it a possibility?"

"Even I don't know that. Things change so quickly in this war, the tides turn so often. I don't think it is but I've been proven wrong before… many time."

The whirr of FLO's engines and squeal of her wheel came up behind Obi-Wan and two cups were slid, skittering and tipping drops of dark steaming caf, across the table. "Sorry about the wait," She said as she sped on and was gone. Satine regarded her cup suspiciously and whipped the rim with a napkin before taking a sip. Her brow furrowed and she lowered the cup quickly.

"That's disgusting."

Obi-Wan chuckled. "It's better than the instant caf we get in the field." He sipped his own cup and had to agree, it wasn't great. Still he stood by his words. The best use for Standard Army Ration Instant Caf was cleaning armor. The only upside was it washed away the dry taste of ration bars better than water. So Obi-Wan sipped the diner's caf, anticipating caffeine buzz.

"You'll be running off again soon then," Satine said listlessly.

"What?"

"To the war, you'll be leaving me again."

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

"Duty always did come first, before everything… friends… love… family." Satine stared out the window.

"You never spoke of her," Obi-Wan noted and then said in response to her questioning look, "your sister. Anakin said her name was Bo-Katan."

"Bo, yes." Satine sighed. "We never really got along."

"Would you tell me about her?" He asked, keeping his voice soft.

"I—" Satine glanced back at him quickly then away. "I don't think I can. I—I don't even think I knew her that well. We hadn't talked in so long… years."

"You seemed close in age," Obi-Wan prompted.

"Yes, she was two years younger than I." Satine fiddled with the cup of caf. "We were always fighting the way sisters do. She was always so, so _stubborn._"

"A little like you?"

Satine laughed a short dry laugh. "Yes, I guess so. I never would have been able to say that to her though. She just always had to be right. We argued for months over which of the Farlow boys were cuter, which was irrelevant because they were five years older than us and couldn't care less what we thought. But Bo was determined to proves she was right." Satine shook her head. "Bo went around asking what other people thought just to prove me wrong, not even thinking that it might be inappropriate and embarrassing for our parents. She never thought things through."

"She was fearless." Obi-Wan nodded, remembering the hard look in the redhead's green eyes as she stood, back straight in the middle of the raging battle.

"She was reckless," Satine growled bitterly.

"And you aren't?" Obi-Wan asked kindly.

"No!"

"You took a radically non-violent stance against a predominantly militaristic culture and became the face of an entire movement. You head up the Council of Neutral Systems, making yourself a target of both corruption in the Republic and the Separatist military. I've seen it myself when you were last on Coruscant, when you risked your life to reveal the tampering with that video."

"Alright, you've made your point."

"You seem to share a lot in common with Bo-Katan."

Satine sighed. "I didn't hate her, Obi-Wan, even if I spent many years trying to convince myself that I did. I certainly believed she hated me. Why else would she join Death Watch unless she didn't believe me. Now I wish I did hate her and I wish she'd hated me. Maybe she wouldn't have…" Satine's eyes glistened in the bright florescent light of the diner. She looked away, out the window again.

"Satine," Obi-Wan reached across the table to wrap his hands around hers, still gripping the warm caf, "what happened between you and Bo-Katan?"

Satine just shook her head. She was saved from answering anything else by the clatter of dishes and the arrival of Hermione with their breakfast.

"Dex pulled out all the stops for you two," the shapely blond said as she put down platters of steaming greasy food, half of it deep fried and the rest slathered with butter. "Y'all enjoy."

Satine looked over the food, her lips twisted in a grimacing pout and her nose upturned in the most ladylike way.

"Are you sure this food is… healthy?" Satine picked at a fried egg with her fork.

"My dear," Obi-Wan said as he dragged his own heaping plate in front of him, "I assure you, nothing on this table is healthy."

"You have a strange way of trying to comfort me."

"I'm not trying to comfort you, Satine. Nothing I can say will change how you think about things. I'm just trying to get you back in the world. It's the only way to move on."

"And if I'm not ready to move on?" She shot back.

"Then we can do this again," Obi-Wan answered. "Regardless you can not stay locked up in Senator Amidala's guest room forever."

"Give me time to grieve."

"There's a difference between grieving and giving up."

Satine just stared out the window, ignoring the food and Obi-Wan. He frowned.

"You should eat," he said as he started his own meal. He'd missed breakfast at the temple and the fatty food was wonderfully filling. It was infinitely better than field rations. It was strange how his perspective had changed so much since the start of the war. Before he never would have thought Dex's food could taste so good.

"I'm not hungry," Satine mumbled, "certainly not for _that."_

"It will make you feel better, I promise."

"How would you know?" She shot back bitterly.

Obi-Wan paused. He took a moment to wash down his mouthful with caf and the silence stretched between them as he did, even with the loud bustling life of the diner around them in stark contrast.

"You remember my Master, Qui-Gon Jinn."

"Yes, of course. What does this have to do with him?"

"This is where I came when I returned from Naboo without him."

Satine finally turned to him, even if it was only out of shock. He had never spoken to her of Qui-Gon after his death. They had avoided being alone with each other out of respect for the mutual unwanted attraction; it hadn't seemed wise. As a result they had never spoken of heavy subjects, never giving themselves the opportunity. That all seemed to be thrown to the wind now.

"I was saddened to hear of his death," Satine said formally, knowing how utterly inadequate her words were.

"So were many people," Obi-Wan nodded. "They all seemed to seek me out the week I returned to tell me so. Even just walking around the temple I could see pity in the eyes of the other Jedi." He shook his head, remembering those days, waking up each morning and forgetting for a few moments that his master was gone, only to be suddenly reminded. "I was looking for some kind of escape. The force brought me here."

"The Force?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"Your stomach led you here."

"You could say that," He shrugged his lips and it earned him a half smile from the duchess which he deemed a success.

"Did it help?" She asked him and Obi-Wan smiled ruefully.

"No, the first thing Dex asked me was how my master was. I had to tell him what happened."

"Then why did you stay?"

"I was hungry," Obi-Wan shrugged and sipped his caf. "Dex wanted to know the whole story, start to finish. It was the first time I'd talked about it since my debriefing with the council. He had an… interesting take on events."

"Interesting."

"Well. It's unimportant… and vulgar."

"You have the loveliest friends Obi-Wan," Satine muttered.

"Oh I haven't even introduced you to the worst of them," He chuckled, thinking of his unlikely truce with Ventress and the fickle relationship the Jedi had with the pirate Hondo Onaka.

"It was hard, wasn't it, losing him?" Satine asked.

"Yes. It… it changed a lot. I was knighted and given a Padawan as well as my own missions and responsibilities. No matter how prepared I thought I was when Qui-Gon suggested I take the trials I found myself in need of council and he was no longer there to give it. I was too young, I realize that now."

They lapsed into silence. Around them a group of rambunctious Rodians got up to go. Two mixed groups argued over the vacated booth and Hermione pushed through them with two loaded trays. Dex yelled out from the back to settle the dispute with a few choice words and life in the bustling diner went on. Obi-Wan ate and Satine watched the speeders outside in silence.

"I was there," Satine finally spoke, her voice thick with emotion, "I was 13 when my parents were killed. It was after the battle on Korda Six in the waves of terrorism that followed. No one ever knew who was responsible." She folded her hands on the table, one gripping the other and shaking. "My parents were advocates of peace, supporters of the New Mandalorians and so both sides had reason to cut them down and use their deaths as a warning to others. I was hiding under the heater in the other room and I could see through the ventilation grating. Bo-Katan and I used to hide there at night and watch the late night hollos over our parent's shoulders." Her voice shook as she spoke. "I watched it all."

"Satine," Obi-Wan tried not to gape. "I never knew." He'd known of her parent's death and the general circumstances. They were what lead to Satine's unwavering loyalty to the New Manadalorians and non-violence as an ideal. Indirectly it was what brought him to Mandalore all those years ago as her protector. Even then he'd never suspected she'd been so close to the violence though.

"Bo-Katan never forgave me."

"For what?" Obi-Wan tried not to let outrage into his voice and failed.

"For doing nothing," Satine looked up and finally met his eyes.

"What could you have done?"

"Nothing, I know that. I think later she realized that as well but… at the time…" Satine trailed off and looked back out the window. "It tore us apart, the whole family. My brother didn't want to be involved, he just wanted to live peacefully. He has a hard enough time accepting that Korkie wants—wanted to succeed me. Bo… Bo just wanted to fight. She would have joined the True Mandalorians then if they had let her."

"How did she wind up with Death Watch?"

Satine shook her head. "I don't know. After the Civil War ended and I became Duchess of Mandalore we… had a fight. We didn't talk again until just three days ago when she broke me out of prison and helped me get a message to you."

"That must count for something."

"I—I didn't expect… Of all the people in the world she was the last person I expected to see but… I was happy to see her, she is—was my sister after all." Satine picked up the cup of luke warm caf and turned it in her long slender hands, frowning. "She said something to me, before…" Satine's throat constricted and her voice cut off. She took a deep breath before continuing, "… before she died. She asked me to take word of the Civil War to the Republic and have them intervene. She told me that _I _would protect our people, that I always had and I'd done that better than she had." Satine's bottom lip trembled. "I don't even know what that means. I'm the one who let Death Watch take the capital from me."

"Bo-Katan probably felt guilty about bring the Sith to Mandalore in the first place."

"That doesn't mean she should have to die."

"Bo-Katan did not sacrifice herself because she made a mistake." Obi-Wan said sternly.

"Then why did she have to die?" Satine begged him for answers with her clear blue eyes, pale as water. "You believe that everything is the will of the Force, that there is a destiny, well what kind of destiny is that?"

"One Bo-Katan chose. She chose to save you, Satine. Even if she made a mistake bringing Maul and Savage to Mandalore she was doing it because she thought it was the right thing for the people. She chose to keep fighting for the people the best way she could, even at the end, by protect their best chance at regaining peace: you. She was protecting you."

"Why? What did I ever do to make me worthy of protecting? You've put your life on the line for me so many times, running across the galaxy to save me without back up for what? I'm no Duchess anymore, the Jedi have no reason to protect me. I'm not even truly a part of the Senate because the Neutral Systems are practically shunned these days. I lost my people to a group of gangsters and murderers, allowed my government to crumble under corruption. What is it about me that is worthy of protection? And don't say 'love' because I have nothing of that left to give."

Obi-Wan reached across the table, wrapping her hands in his own and gently squeezed them. "I will always protect you, Satine," he said, only loud enough to be heard over the crowded diner, "because you are the gentlest and the strongest soul I have ever known."

"I don't feel very strong right now, Obi-Wan."

"You are," he said with a smile in his voice, "because you have stood by your convictions, you have not turned to violence."

"Violence will not save the people of Mandalore."

"No," Obi-Wan agreed, "Peace will. That is what Bo-Katan died for. You have always stood by that ideal and I believe, as she did, that you always will."

Satine sat silently staring down at their clasped hands, her brow furrowed and a thoughtful frown on her face. Obi-Wan pulled away and went back to eating his food. Satine sat very still for a long time, then slowly, tentatively, she picked up her fork. Her first bites were slow and questioning but became larger and quicker as hunger caught up to her. Obi-Wan let a small smile onto his face as he watched Satine's plate clear. At last the dishes were bare and Obi-Wan's cup was empty. (Satine's remained full, that she refused to drink.)

The former Duchess wiped her mouth with a napkin and combed her hair back with her hand, chin up, and looking more like herself than she had all day.

"You were right, Master Kenobi, the food did make me feel better even if it wasn't to my usual taste."

"I'm glad you approve, even if only in this special circumstance." Obi-Wan replied. "Shall we, my Dear. I'm sure the Senator is waiting for your return."

"Yes," Satine nodded. "I hope to discuss the current state of the affairs in Coruscant with Senator Amidala. If I am to present Mandalore's situation to the Senate I will need to know who my potential supporters are and what obstacles I will encounter."

"I believe you will find her most helpful and sympathetic to your cause." Obi-Wan stood and offered a hand to help Satine out of the booth. Hermione flashed them a smile from across the diner as they left. Obi-Wan called out a thanks to Dex in the back, who waved with one of his four hands while the other three continued to cook in his usual hap-hazard and chaotic way.

The speeder ride back to Amidala's apartment was comfortably silent. Satine rode in the passenger seat with her head up, watching the city pass them. Obi-Wan walked her back to the door where they stopped to make their good byes.

"I must be getting back to the Temple."

"The war goes on."

"Unfortunately."

"Obi," Satine said, eyes bright, "thank you."

"Thank you," He said with a smile. "I enjoy breakfast with you, Satine." He took her hand and kissed the backs of her fingers, smirking in a way she found to be just the right mix of charming and irksome. Satine just shook her head. More seriously he said, "I wish you the best of luck with the Senate, I'm afraid you'll need it."

"I didn't think Jedi believed in luck."

"Most don't. I'm still on the fence." He turned to go, Jedi robes rippling in his movement and his lightsaber swinging on his belt, worn with a casual reverence. She felt a sudden longing to stop him just like she felt every time she watched his back receding away from her.

"Obi-Wan," She called out and he turned back. "On the Coronet, did you mean what you said about all those years ago?"

"There was no reason to lie." He responded somberly.

"If I had asked, when we arrived on Coruscant, would you have left then?"

"You would never have asked that of me," he said with a small smile. "We both had our duties just as we do now."

"Yes, you're right." She nodded and almost turned away before remembering something else she had to say. "I will see you again." It wasn't a question.

"Of course. Though I hope it won't be in a prison this time."

Satine smiled. She breathed deep and lifted her chin, ready, finally, to return to her duty, to Mandalore, to her people, to her family, to Bo-Katan, and to peace. Obi-Wan would return to his to the Order, to the Council, to the war, and to the Code, until their paths crossed again.

* * *

Author's Note: For those of you who are curious _Usenye_ is Mando'a for "get out" only with a ruder connotation more like "f off" and _Gar lise hetti lo haran ni nu'baatir, shabuir! _means "You can burn in hell for all I care, jerk!" though _shabuir_ also has a stronger connotation more akin to our insults to a persons lineage. Mandalorians tended not to care who your father was and focused more on your performance as an individual. Their strongest insults were things like coward and traitor. They were after all a warrior culture. I hope you guys enjoy. If you're looking for more I should be posting some Ahsoka/Rex stuff soon. Suggestions, comments, requests? Just leave me a review -Ember.


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